B2B FinTech Goes High-Tech For Funding

The U.S. is no longer the world’s largest market for FinTech investment, according to the latest report from Citigroup, released this week. Analysts found that, in the first nine months of 2016, China held the top spot for FinTech investment, with funding raised for that period doubling compared to the same period in 2015. This week, however, venture capitalists in the B2B FinTech space went global, hitting Australia, the U.S., France and India. Once again, it was a healthy dose of modest funding rounds for a varied B2B FinTech space, and we break down all of the $45.6 million raised.

Commercial Cards

Spendesk

It’s not everyday that the B2B payments space sees innovation in corporate cards, but Spendesk, based in France, is giving the industry a little boost. The company raised $2.2 million from backers at Kima Ventures and Funders Club, as well as several angel investors, reports said Tuesday (Jan. 24). Spendesk provides physical and virtual card solutions for businesses to manage expenses and control employee spend, and its latest funding comes as the company prepares to launch a mobile app that enables employees to take receipts of their purchases and automatically upload that data onto the spend management platform. The funds will also be used to propel Spendesk’s expansion across Europe, reports said.

Corporate Travel

TripActions

The expense management solutions offered by Spendesk are just part of the challenge of business trips; the other is the actual booking process, which is what TripActions aims to tackle. The firm announced Tuesday that it secured $14.6 million in funding from Zeev Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners as it looks to control employee spend, which can be difficult when those employees ultimately know the company will pay for the trip. TripActions offers rewards for employees when they remain under corporate budget, which can be used for things like Amazon gift cards. With the new funding, TripActions said it will introduce more personalized and custom features on its site, as well as focus on mobile compatibility.

SMEs

NowFloats

NowFloats enables small and medium-sized businesses to gain a digital presence, and investors at Iron Pillar Capital and IIFL have backed that mission to the tune of $10 million. The Series B funding round, which also saw participation from Blume Ventures and Omidyar Network, will go toward boosting NowFloats’ technology and toward customer support, the firm said this week. The funds will also be used to expand across its home market of India. NowFloats supports SME digitization by facilitating the development of small business websites in a way that enables small business owners to spend their time focusing on their businesses and not on site maintenance, the startup explained.

Enterprise Mobility

CUneXus Solutions

Based in California, CUneXus Solutions has a very specific target in mind for its marketing clients: credit unions. The startup focuses on helping these businesses establish a mobile marketing strategy and technology to offer personalized lending products, and with $5 million in new funding from CMFG Ventures LLP – the VC arm of CUNA Mutual Group – the firm will presumably continue with that focus. CMFG Ventures President and Managing Director Brian Kaas explained in a statement that the startup’s technology “gives credit unions better insight into members’ creditworthiness and borrowing abilities, helping them offer targeting lending solutions using convenient mobile channels.”

IoT

Lighthouse.io

On Thursday (Jan. 26), Australian startup Lighthouse.io announced a $1 million seed funding round for its B2B solution, which uses Internet of Things technology to help employee productivity. The firm’s tools involve giving each employee a mobile app that accumulates data from their surrounding areas, with that information transmitted via Bluetooth beacons. That data is then used to help employees manage task lists, access instructions, provide safety alerts and more, all targeted in the workplace. The technology can also assess other metrics, like where and how employees spend most of their time. Early-stage venture capital fund Tamarisc provided the funding, reports said, as did Morningside Technology Ventures and Storm Industries Investments.